Manoj Kohli set to take over Softbank India

Manoj Kohli is the Country Head – Soft Bank India to support all portfolio companies of the group and Vision Fund – Ola, Uber, Snapdeal, Paytm, Policybazaar, Lenskart to name a few. More portfolio companies likely to invest in India in the next 3-5 years.

The Tokyo-based SoftBank Group is a big player with investments in giants like Alibaba. However, these are tough times as companies Uber and WeWork are facing challenges. In India too, companies like OYO are considering layoffs. In 2017 Softbank did its single largest investment in India at that time, US$1.4 billion in Paytm. SoftBank was a big player in the Flipkart saga also, selling its stake to Walmart.

Kohli was previously the managing Director and CEO of Bharti AirTel. Under him, Airtel’s customer base grew from 2 million to 150 million after which he was associated with their Africa operations. He has worked all over the world in places like Hong Kong, Michigan, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore. He has degrees in commerce and law apart from an MBA from Delhi University.